Canyon Trails Traffic Jam

Trail biking in a north San Diego canyon seems to be running up against its own popularity. Deer Canyon is part of a new preserve in the City of San Diego’s open-space system, whose management is guided by the Multiple Species Conservation Program. The protected area, called Del Mar Mesa Preserve, is located north of Los Peñasquitos Canyon and south of the Ted Williams Freeway. Deer Canyon lies north of and below the eastern section of Del Mar Mesa. The City has been acquiring much of the land for over ten years. It is home to the horned toad and barrel cactus as well as several endangered species.

The City hired Recon Environmental Inc. to write for the new preserve a “resource management plan,” which has been in production since 2002. Over the summer, the company unveiled a final version of the document, which the Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve Citizens’ Advisory Committee immediately rejected. The problem? In the committee’s view, the plan failed to describe an adequate trail system for the newly dedicated area. The Peñasquitos Canyon group has also been overseeing trails planning for Carmel Mountain Preserve, immediately to the west.

San Diego’s open spaces are intended to protect ecologically sensitive lands and make them publicly available for the enjoyment of beautiful scenery and natural peacefulness. For trails, Recon’s management plan relied primarily on San Diego Gas and Electric Company access roads into Del Mar Mesa and Deer Canyon. To allow passage by SDG&E trucks, the roads are much like regular streets, except that they are dirt and about 20 feet wide. They tend to be located on the new preserve’s perimeter.

Some members of the committee suspected that Recon was largely ignorant of an existing interior system of trails in Deer Canyon. Or Recon may have simply wanted to exclude the trails as too environmentally intrusive. Together with nearby McGonigle Canyon, Deer Canyon was long the make-do, outdoor home for multitudes of migrant farmworkers. In 2002, local media shone a light on the encampments, embarrassing the Carmel Valley and Del Mar Mesa communities’ more affluent members. Shortly thereafter, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents drove the migrants out of Deer Canyon, and they have not returned. (Hundreds of migrants still live in McGonigle Canyon, however, in close proximity to the houses of well-to-do San Diegans.)

While living in Deer Canyon, the migrants created numerous trails for entering, exiting, and moving around the lower areas. The trails cannot be seen from the canyon’s higher reaches because the branches and foliage of abundant Nuttall’s scrub oaks cover them. The trees grow to be only about 12 feet high, but they are 12 feet wide at their crests. When they grow close together, the trees form a dense blanket over the ground.

Erik Basil is a member of the Peñasquitos Canyon citizens’ advisory committee and president of an advocacy group called the Multi-use Trails Coalition. “Although these canyons have always had ‘jeep roads,’ motorcycle trails and SDG&E access roads carved through them,” writes Basil in an email, “the itinerant workers…created a vast network of organic pedestrian and bike trails in and among the low, coastal scrub oaks that fill the arroyos there. As [the migrants] moved out, runners and bikers in the know began to move in and, after the fires of 2007 that closed major running and biking trail areas, the kids and families running and riding these trails have grown to immense numbers. Until recently, all this land was private property and, prior to the owner’s transfer of the parcels to the City…comprised the largest ‘permission’ trails network in the County. The trails are unique in that…a significant number wind through the scrub oaks under ‘full canopy’ for miles of narrow, shaded, quiet [passageways] near a gurgling stream. They have become famous in the running and cycling community under descriptive but unofficial names, such as the ‘Shire,’ ‘Hobbit Trails,’ and the ‘Penasquitos Tunnels.’ ”

But some local property owners resent the runners and bikers. Until recent and widespread residential development, Carmel Valley was horse country. “Now there may be as few as 50 horses stabled in the area,” Basil tells me. But a horse-country frame of mind still persists. There is strong feeling among a few property owners living close to the new preserves that trail use should be limited to horseback riding. The bikers’ presence seems to announce that long-established neighborhood life is ebbing away.

Some ranchers of yesteryear are also unhappy about how much residential development now surrounds them. “But many of them made fortunes by selling land to the developers,” argues Basil. “Now they want to keep the Del Mar Mesa and Deer Canyon as their own little private backyards.”

Real estate broker Bunnie Clews, whose son Christian owns Clews Horse Ranch, gives me an equestrian’s point of view. Both mother and son are members of the Peñasquitos Canyon committee — and ardent horseback riders. “I was totally unprepared,” she says, “for the number of trails that are down in Deer Canyon when I first walked it in August of this year. I saw probably 50 cyclists that day. And I know that some horses have been down there because I saw evidence.

“But horses and cyclists cannot use the same trails very successfully,” continues Clews, “because the bikes are so fast and they’re quiet. They come zipping up on you, and a horse just blows up. Depending on the horse and rider, that can have disastrous results. Some of the horses recover and some don’t. They’re frightened and they take off. They’re prey animals and they have a fight-or-flight mentality, mainly flight.

“So the two groups cannot use the trails together. If they make the Deer Canyon tunnels part of the trail system, they need to research them and allow bikes on some and horses on the others. I will tell you that I have never ridden down in the tunnels of Deer Canyon on a horse. As it is right now, the tunnels are really low. I’m pretty short and so is my horse. And I would be bent over, not that that doesn’t happen on trails, but most of the ones in Deer Canyon are really not used by horses. I saw one pile of old poop. And it was old. I do agree that horses shouldn’t have to be confined to roadways. There’s nothing pleasant about riding down a big fat fire road.

Comments

I don't know, call me odd but I feel a little uncomfortable when a developer like Mr. Levitt speaks of a narrow 2 foot trail ever widening to, gee, 3 feet, and mounds of dirt piled up "damaging these natural features which have probably been there, undisturbed for thousands of years".

Golly, has Mr. Levitt found green living environmentalism as his new religion?

Here are some excerpts: "in a surprise conspiratorial overthrow, highly regarded and long-time Del Mar Mesa Community Planning
Board Chair Jan Hudson was replaced by a developer member
during a vote laced with violations of city council policy and its
own bylaws." and "The regime change has put a fox in charge of the chicken coop: a developer who does not live in the area but has major projects in front of this board now Chairs a city advisory body charged
with making sure new projects conform to the community plan."

FROM ARTICLE: “I’ll tell you,” says Mikuteit, “when we ride our bikes through those tunnels, my son gets so energized he goes flying through. It’s a special experience.”

CORRECTION: My son is only 4 years old and rides a bike with training wheels. He cannot ride on trails yet. I was referencing the HIKING we do together in this area. He gets so excited by the tunnel of trees around the trail, he runs through them like he's flying.

FROM ARTICLE: Agreeing with Bunnie Clews, Mikuteit thinks the ultimate solution may be to divide trails according to the types of users.

CORRECTION: This is opposite of what I believe. Shared multiuse trails are successful throughout Southern California, and this place should be no exception. I did state that dividing up trails according to use was a goal of certain other individuals.

I would urge those in positions of authority to avoid the temptation to simply close Del Mar Mesa Preserve to avoid damage to the environment. Certainly there must be sufficient expertise available to develop and implement a plan that would allow hikers, bikers, and horses to responsibly use this unique Preserve. It is a very special area and it would be a tragedy to simply close it off to all use. Everyone is going to have to make compromises to assure that this area can be enjoyed while still protecting the environment.
And please, let's refrain from playing the blame game on who is responsible for the recent damage. Nobody knows for sure who caused it. Let's work together to eliminate damage in the future and look forward to enjoying the eco-friendly trail system that is to come.

One of the primary reasons I live in San Diego (and Del Mar in particular) is because of the natural beauty and outdoor activities. Without getting into my car, I can surf, hike a canyon, mountainbike to Penasquitos, or jog through Torrey Pines. If I couldn't do those things, this would be just another suburb. It's what makes this place amazing.

I think we owe it to ourselves, our kids, and our neighbors to work out a way to share these killer outdoor resources. Horses, wildlife, bikers, and hikers can all get along.

Developers play a role too, but they have a fiduciary obligation to their shareholders and lenders first. Whatever allowances they make for the community and residents are often the minimum needed to make their businesses work. That doesn't make them bad people, it just means they have interests that conflict with ours.

I for one believe that we, the residents and lovers of this place, can and should work together. Even a small show of support helps. The many can be more effective than the few, especially in an educated and affluent community like this. See you at the next meeting :)

I've been trail riding in this area for many years now. To characterize the situation with the headline "Canyon Trails Traffic Jam" is way over the top, from both the standpoint of numbers of users and trail conflicts. Granted there are a few more bikers out there on a Saturday or Sunday morning, but just last Saturday afternoon I rode the entire trail system for a couple of hours and saw no one. Furthermore, I have never seen an equestrian either on the upper trails, nor in the Tunnels Trails. The only way an equestrian could maneuver in the Tunnels would be to illegally cut the canopy, which in fact happened this week in one of the closed Tunnels trails. This has now caused Parks & Rec to irresponsibly close the entire area to all trail users. The equestrian/s who did this should be laid out on the trail and run over repeatedly by the members of the "responsible" mountain biking community — the same community who pick up trash, trail build and work within the system to design plans for the area that not only preserve the trails, but for all users.

The Del Mar Mesa Preserve consists of sensitive lands that have been set aside for protection as mitigation ("to make up for") resource damage in other nearby areas such as the Mira Mesa Marketplace development -- which destroyed a large vernal pool habitat in violation of federal law, and the SR56 project. Protected lands on Del Mar Mesa are managed by the City of San Diego, State of California, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The overriding mandate for the protection of these lands is the MSCP, or Multiple Species Conservation Plan, to which all the above-listed parties subscribe, in addition to other stakeholders including the development industry, environmental and recreational user constituencies. It is absolutely critical to the success of the MSCP, and to future growth in our region, that these highly senstive MSCP lands be protected. Once damaged or destroyed, whether it be by one or a hundred willful or unwitting actions on the part of preserve users, these sensitive resources will not bounce back. We support the recent administrative actions by the resource agencies to safeguard the Del Mar Mesa Preserve through a temporary administrative closure to recreational uses, at least until the publication and adoption of the Resource Management Plan which is currently under development and scheduled for review by the advisory committee in March, 2009. - Geoffrey Smith, Chairperson, Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC)

Thanks to the Reader for covering the issues of habitat preservation and the public access intended by the Multiple Species Conservation Program.

Deer Canyon's evolution from a migrant community replete with trails, kitchens, latrines, laundries, farming, hunting and unrelated dumping of construction debris to one of passive trail use by hikers, runners and the cycling community has been storied and controversial. Some claim the land was pristine, untouched and completely pure prior to discovery by San Diegans seeking enhanced quality of life via our Open Space. Others have claimed that trail use by scores of San Diegans hasn't had any effect at all upon the habitat. Both are clearly mistaken.

Use over recent decades is established by media reports and the documentary, "The Invisible Mexicans of Deer Canyon". Impacts have been mitigated by trash removal and passive trail use by "stewards" for the open space. However, even a footprint is an "impact" and it's undeniable that migrant trails have been widened and used far more than they ever were before. When the RMP is complete, we'll have a plan to manage trails and control impacts.

Regrettably, vandalism in the "Hobbit Trails" was discovered last week & reported by locals. A stand of Nutall's Scrub Oak was destroyed to open up the trail to the sky for visitors that didn't previously "fit there" as noted above. The damage is horrendous.

This puts the land managers in a tough spot! They can rely upon the community's "patrols" to discover such damage, but how can they prevent it, outright? Although there were other options, the Parks Department has chosen to close the entirety of the singletrack trail network in Deer Canyon, pending further review. This is a great loss to the law abiding supporters of open space and responsible trail use that have been running, hiking and riding these trails for years, but one that we must now support and honor while we wait for the City Rangers to follow leads & witness reports.

The plan endorsed by the SDMBA and MTC called for closure and revegetation of over 65% of the trails in Deer Canyon. With further research into the trail that was vandalized last week, it's apparent that route will not be viable in the long term. The remainder of the trails proposed for management comprise about 20% of what's in the canyon. The Rangers have sent a clear message: hacking open the canopy won't get user groups "access" to trails because they now "fit" but will get the whole place closed, to the detriment of all San Diegans that value this beautiful and important natural resource.

We can all work together to ensure public access & quality of life aren't sacrificed or lost due to the despicable acts of a few and that the open space lands are preserved in a responsible and effective manner for the benefit of future generations of San Diegans. It's important that we do so.

Let’s do the math on this.
I will preface this by saying that contrary to popular belief, a number of trail impact studies consistently find that cyclists have equal or less of an ‘impact factor’ than that of hikers, and far less than equestrians. http://www.imba.com/resources/science/index.html

Single-track bike trails, like those in Deer Canyon, average maybe 3 ft wide, and yes although this may be slightly wider than the original migrant walking trails, expansion is limited to the current size. So then, how many feet of trails approximately comprise the final plans proposed by SDMBA (SDMBA.com) and MTC (Multi-use Trail Colilition)?

Calculate the overall 'trail' area vs the overall ‘total’ area of Deer Canyon, etc. What percent will be used by trails?

Furthermore, as the only trails accepted in the final trail proposals were careful not to impede into environmentally sensitive areas, what can be considered the actual 'impact factor' to the region should the proposals be accepted, taking into account the above calculation?

As I suspect the total burden implied by the % area compounded by a very low impact factor on the environmentally sensitive areas would be quite small. So, how does it weigh against allowing or forbidding public access to the area?

What if we add to this the fact that SDMBA and MTC are established stewards of the land that organize volunteer trail maintenance and care for the parks throughout San Diego? And if we compound with this the fact that there will be several cyclists patrolling the area, and yes we are very protective and concerned about the care and maintenance of this preserve? It was one such cyclist that took the pictures and alerted the Rangers of the tree cutting in Deer Canyon by vandals. Had he not been there, the damage would very likely have been far, far worse by the time the authorities discovered it.

The other alternative is fencing the area off and forbidding public access. This has proven to not be a successful approach for the environment. Poachers will cut the fences and trespass. Unfortunately, this is apparent in the neglect of the ‘vernal pool’ area where dumped garbage, dirt bikes, 4x4s and parties did, and may still, frequent the area and damage the habitat. A less frequented, off-limits area would also be permissive for migrants to transiently inhabit the area again. It is an impossible job for the limited Ranger staff to care for the main park area and still patrol the borders of this large preserve.

These issues should be what the public and those who will determine the outcome of this area weigh into their evaluations.